Sam – Viduka and Owen Ready to Start Sunday

Big Sam spoke today on some of our injuries, and said Sunday would be too early for Jose Enrique, but that he could well be involved at the Emirates stadium on Tuesday evening in the Carling Cup.

But it looks like Mark Viduka and Owen are both ready to go on Sunday â€“ so that’s good.

Sam Allardyce – Viduka and Owen all set to start on Sunday

Sam said this morning:

“Mark Viduka should be back on Sunday, which is good news,”

“I don’t know if we missed him against Derby as such because the team’s performance was so far below the level of what we expect, but it’ll be nice to have him available again.”

That will be good because we did miss Mark against Derby County. Shola Ameobi had a poor game and so we had nobody as our target man and nobody to hold the ball up. We hope we can now keep Mark fit from now on in, and keep those hamstring problems away.

“There is nothing more to say about Michael Owen other than what the club has already said.â€

“He is fine to play against West Ham. There is a small problem, but he does not need a hernia operation or anything like that. We hope Michael will be fine to carry on playing without any sort of operation.”

Wonder if those reports about Michael needing an immediate hernia operation will go away. Must say we are getting a little fed up with all these false stories on Michael Owen. It cannot be any good for the player himself â€“ but we suppose Michael’s used to this kind of stuff by now.

Allardyce unfortunately said the West Ham game will come too early for Spanish new boy Jose Enrique. That’s a pity because we’d really like to see Jose get a run-out. His pedigree seems excellent and he’s a tough boy so the premiership should be suited to him. However, Sam says the 21-year-old left-back could have a big part to play next week as Newcastle go to Arsenal in the Carling Cup on Tuesday and then take on Man City in the league on Saturday morning.

Sam continued:

“I don’t think any of the other injured players are going to be available for the West Ham game but Jose Enrique could be involved in the games next week, although he is still short of games in the Premier League and match sharpness,”

“Emre should also be back in full training over the weekend so he could play some part as well. It was nice to get Habib Beye and Abdoulaye Faye on the field on Monday night.â€

It’s good that Emre should be fit because Newcastle needs his creativity in midfield and it’s time for Emre to produce this season,. Emre’s been injured almost all season but we have top hope that that’s now behind him. It also looks like Sam would like to get Faye back in the team, somewhere.

Sam went on:

“Abdoulaye has played in the Premiership for two or three years with me at Bolton so he is okay to come straight in and make his presence felt straight away.â€

“Habib Beye has to find his way in English football and that could take a little bit more time. He got a little taste of what the Premier League is about on Monday night against Derby, albeit a very disappointing one, and he will be important to us in the next few weeks with all the games that are coming up.”

That’s the statement why we think Sam may not include Habib as a starter on Sunday, although we’d like to see Beye start at right-back. We think he can lock up that position this season at Newcastle as he’s a very experienced and capable player. Big Sam has also vowed his side will come out fighting when West Ham come to St. James’ Park on Sunday.

Thats’ what we need â€“ a very energetic start â€“ and then keep it up for the rest of the game. Much like the boys produced against Bolton in the first game of the season. We know the crowd will be behind the team, because a win will put us right back where we belong â€“ up there near the leaders for so early in the season.

And then we can go on from there. It will also give the team confidence for the upcoming games at Arsenal and Manchester City and we’re looking forward to an entertaining game on Sunday.

Dead shame to see Jose wont be available. Looks like Zog will be at left back which is pity as he should be given the chance to drive the midfield creative wise but it shows we need another left back to cover that position to free charlie boy up.

I think the key player here is Enrique. The sooner he is fit to play the better. With a proper left back playing this will allow N’Zogbia to play in his best position (left wing). With Milner and the Zog going down the flanks hopefully this will improve the team’s creativity and give us that spark we’ve been missing all season.

We should have got Robbie Carlos on a free at the end of last season – maybe we would have done if BSA was in place sooner and Cashley’s transfer had gone thru. Oh well – we might finally get Wayne Bridge in January now that Stamford Bridge is beginning to crumble.

It doesn’t really matter who he starts up front. It could be Messi and Ruud, the problem is the midfield – we can’t keep playing this shit narrow defensive midfield – especially at home.

Smith a right winger lol, when milner plays on the left he likes to cut in, which makes everything too narrow. Taylor is shite going forward so the only player we have wide on the pitch is Zogbia and if west ham keep him busy then we have had it. The only outlet left is a big boot up to viduka – hope he flicks it on to Owen to get behind the defence, which when it is the only ttack you have is easy to defend against.

the tactics sam uses can only work if the players your basing them round are dependable . we revolved the entire derby match around getting the ball upto shola so he could flick on ect . overlooking the fact he had a marker twice his size and build , he’s rarely had a good game for us and we go building the tactics around the hope of him winning the ball . owen relies on service , as it stand we dont have the quality of service for him in midfield or from shola . time to dump this big man little man nonsense and building a squad around one or two players . i agree with the calls for playing the fully fit smith and martins upfront .

hmmm – looks like Oba’s out in the cold as Sam continues with his big man little man strike force, presumably he’ll be off in Jan transfer window as he isn’t going to happy keeping the bench warm nor having Ameobi picked ahead of him. I’d like to know what he was thinking when he was watching Shola on monday – he must be very depressed at playing second fidddle to him and Owen

Why wont Sam play Martins if Owen is lsightly injured???????? He is probable a better all round player. Please dont let him become unhappy because we cant afford to loose him!!!!!! Cant we get a message to Sam as to how the supporters feel>>>

Pete – Milner cuts infield a lot because he’s been playing on the left side of midfield. I’m sure that once Zog returns there and Milner is switched to the right he’ll be a lot more effective as a wide player.

toon chicken – Mind u,Owen scores most of the goals u are talking about when he was in liverpool and madrid,which was b/4 he started havin injury problems.Most fans still have confidence in Martins than owen. We cant afford to lose Martins but we can still cope without Owen.

Viduka and Owen upfront, I don’t know what is happenning but NS was so afraid of losing Martins and now he is just not using him and I feel that he might become unhappy and leave the club then. So please start Owen upfront with Martins. Martins started with 2 goals at Bolton then a draw against Villa and then he was on the bench came on against Wigan and kicked a fantastic cross to open up things 2 minutes before the end of the game. What has he done to be left out of the team, don’t understand it at the moment.

League Placement

health update

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in February 2017 and completed four months of chemotherapy in late July and will continue to have hormone treatment.

The cancer spread in the bones but it has been stabilized and has not spread further.

I am still recovering from some of the side effects of the chemo treatment - it's mainly severe fatigue and exhaustion.

Stage 4 cancer is not curable so I will continue to have cat scans and bone scans every four months to ensure the cancer is not spreading.

It is as it is - these things happen - and I will do my very best under the circumstances.

Ed Harrison

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